This invention pertains to a filtering apparatus for the filtering of fibers and equivalent materials from flowing air. The filtering apparatus has a hollow fiber filtering assembly into which the air to be filtered is guided, and which air flows through at least one filter disposed at the circumference of the fiber filtering assembly, where the air once again flows out. A driven conveyer component is located inside the fiber filtering assembly, which conveyer component conveys the filtered fiber stock in the path traveled by the helix there being at least one outlet for the filtered fiber stock located adjacent to the terminus of the helix.
Filtering apparatuses, to which the invention relates, serve in particular for the filtering of textile fibers, thread remnants, and equivalent materials, as they are produced through syphoning in spinning plants, knitting plants, weaving plants and similar textile operations, without restricting the invention hereto.
In a well known filtering apparatus of this kind, as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,713,921, a cylindrical filter is provided, within whose interior is located a mechanical rotating scraper in the form of a screw-like wound coil. The fiber material scraped from the filter falls into a collecting chamber. It is disadvantageous among other factors, that the fiber material is not compacted, so that it is very voluminous, and the collecting chamber must be emptied often, the emptying process additionally being unpleasant.
Hence, it would be desirable in such filtering apparatuses, where relatively large quantities of fibers are filtered, that the fiber material be strongly compacted (compressed), so that as much fiber stock as possible may be accommodated in the given volume of the collecting container attached to the filtering apparatus, and that the emptying of the collecting container need not occur at short intervals of time. This compacting also facilitates the possible further processing of the filtered fiber stock.
Filtering apparatuses have already become well known, which possess means to compact the filtered fiber material immediately and automatically, and yet the well known apparatuses of this kind, as disclosed, for example, in German Pat. Nos. 1,510,317 and 1,921,950, can only clean the filter discontinuously, and can only compact the herein obtained fiber stock discontinuously. This discontinuous working method causes the pressure drop of the air flowing through the filtering apparatus to fluctuate at the filter to a considerable extent, and causes corresponding fluctuations in the flow of the conveying air current, which is usually undesirable and in many cases also very disadvantageous. In addition, in these well known apparatuses the filter surface can only be relatively small with respect to the exterior dimensions of the housing, which fact is also disadvantageous.